Sharisse Scineaux, daughter of Sylvia Scineaux-Richard, president of the Eastern New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Commission. After a recent meeting of the commission&#8217;s advisory board, Sylvia shared the exciting news that Sharisse had won an Emmy award for &#8220;Outstanding Achievement in Television Programming Excellence Public/Current/Community Affairs.&#8221; Sharisse is a 1986 graduate of Dominican High School and a former...
http://media.nola.com/design/alpha/img/logo_nola.gif007/12/201207/10/2012
-->

Dominican grad wins Emmy for production

Congratulations to Sharisse Scineaux, daughter of Sylvia Scineaux-Richard, president of the Eastern New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Commission.

After a recent meeting of the commission’s advisory board, Sylvia shared the exciting news that Sharisse had won an Emmy award for “Outstanding Achievement in Television Programming Excellence Public/Current/Community Affairs.”

Sharisse is a 1986 graduate of Dominican High School and a former associate producer at WDSU-TV in New Orleans.

She received the Emmy during a ceremony that the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Southeast Region) held in Atlanta on June 9. The award honored a yearlong project called “Rachel’s Challenge” that Sharisse produced along with her colleagues at WXIA-TV in Atlanta.

I remember sitting motionless in 1999 as I listened to the news of the horrific shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Two students planned to kill hundreds of their peers. In the end 12 students, one teacher and the two teenage gunmen were dead; 21 were injured.

Rachel Joy Scott was the first student to be killed. She was known for her friendly personality and compassionate nature. Rachel left diaries and several essays about her belief in God and how she wanted to change the world through small acts of kindness.

“Rachel’s Challenge” to her peers and everyone else she met was to “spread kindness and compassion as far as it will go.” Sharisse made it her mission to incorporate that message into daily TV coverage at WXIA.

The station then hosted a culminating event Nov. 11 at the Georgia Dome, where thousands of students were brought together on Veterans Day along with U.S. veterans and everyday citizens to celebrate kindness and service.

Although Rachel’s life came to a tragic end, the production brings to mind the movie “Pay It Forward,” in which one person does a good deed for someone else, and that person in turn can “pay it forward” by doing a good deed, and so forth.

In this way, positive change can occur and keep going. Congratulations to Sharisse for spreading the word.

••••••••

In my column that ran June 28, the following members of the nonprofit organization Community Legion were left off the list of those present at a June 20 meeting on the renovation of Joe W. Brown Park: Ed Blouin, Ben Diggins, Arthur Busby, Wilfred Norris, Phil Reed and Eddie Oliver.

Thank you. Your participation in what is happening in eastern New Orleans is extremely important.